Our activities are monitored by professional quality management systems:

• System Accreditation
• Internal Accreditation
• EAEVE Peer-Review Process

Alongside central tools such as target agreements, central reporting, and conceptual, legal, capacity-related, and structural reviews of academic programs, the School of Veterinary Medicine makes regular use of the following additional quality assurance tools:

• Evaluations
  
• Integration of external expertise (Peer Consultation with external specialists)
• Process descriptions
  
• Quality reports on studying and teaching
• Commissions/Task Forces and Working Groups
  

In the course of the Bologna reforms to establish a common European higher education area and the resulting amendment of the German Framework Act on Higher Education (Hochschulrahmengesetz), the requirements that apply to quality assurance measures in the fields of studying and teaching were given a legal basis. The responsibility for quality assurance rests with the higher education institution itself. The institution’s internal quality assurance system is regularly reviewed through an external accreditation process.

The system accreditation procedure examines the extent to which the processes and instruments of the university's own quality assurance system are suitable for ensuring the high quality of the courses on offer. Following successful accreditation, Freie Universität Berlin was the first university in Berlin to be awarded the quality seal of the Accreditation Council in September 2016. The obtained self-accreditation right allows Freie Universität Berlin to certify its degree programs as quality-assured after passing the internal quality assurance system.

For further information on system accreditation and the current status of the process for Freie Universität Berlin, please click here.

In the internal accreditation process, the Executive Board of Freie Universität Berlin uses the following criteria to review whether a Bachelor or Master degree program has undergone the stipulated quality assurance procedures according to the rules:

• Conceptual Assessment
• Legal Assessment
• Capacity Assessment
• Peer Consultations with external specialists
• Decentralised evaluations
• Centralised evaluations
• Quality reports on studying and teaching

If so, the program is accredited by the Executive Board of Freie Universität Berlin in accordance with the right of self-accreditation. The degree program receives the quality seal of the German Accreditation Council, is included in the database of the German Accreditation Council and is listed on the website of Freie Universität Berlin under "Accredited Degree Programs".

University-accredited degree programs at the School of Veterinary Medicine:

• Bachelor Equine Sciences (BSc)
• Master Small Animal Science (MSc, postgraduate)
• Master Equine Medicine (MSc, postgraduate)

The European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE) regularly evaluates European Veterinary Education Establishments on behalf of the European Union (see Council Decision 78/1028/EEC). The aims of quality assurance at European level are to harmonize and ensure a comparably high standard of veterinary training, which, in accordance with EU Directives 78/1028/EEC, 2005/36/EC and 2013/55/EU, form the basic prerequisites for the automatic Europe-wide recognition of qualifications and the associated free exercise of the profession within the European Union.

The School of Veterinary Medicine has been positively evaluated three times to date, most recently in July 2018. With the positive evaluation, the EAEVE certifies that the School of Veterinary Medicine at Freie Universität Berlin fulfills the European requirements for the training of veterinarians. The School is one of the education establishments recognized by the EAEVE. The peer review procedure takes place every seven years.